Geosystems of the northeastern Hovsgol region

Abstract

We examine the main natural features and the present status of geosystems across the territory of the northeastern Hovsgol region. The source of observational evidence concerning the state of the landscapes was provided by field expedition-based investigations, with emphasis placed on the study of the species and age composition of vegetation in conjunction with dynamical processes as well as geomorphological characteristics of the study area. The present status of geosystems across the study territory was analyzed by methods of visual interpretation and automated processing of spatial information using GIS technologies on the basis of Earth remote sensing data, field investigations of landscapes, topographic maps as well as literature sources. Special attention was paid to the analysis of the digital elevation model that was generated on the basis of SRTM 4 data in order to determine the morphometric characteristics of the location of geosystems, assign them to a particular type of classification of geosystems and compile the map legend. The legend to the landscape map was produced on the basis of a classification of a number of geomers as developed by V.B. Sochava in his theory of geosystems. As a result of the work done, we compiled the medium-scale landscape-typological map of geosystems (Sc 1:200000) on the level of groups of facies.